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Social Justice, Human Rights and Progressive NewsSat, 17 Feb 2018 04:55:27 +0000enhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4https://i0.wp.com/upriseri.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cropped-bullhorn.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1Uprise RIhttps://upriseri.com
3232138499091Judge demands answers from ICE in Lilian Calderon casehttps://upriseri.com/news/immigration/2018-02-17-judge-wolf-ice-lilian-calderon/
https://upriseri.com/news/immigration/2018-02-17-judge-wolf-ice-lilian-calderon/#respondSat, 17 Feb 2018 04:51:34 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5252...]]>United States District Judge Mark Wolf is demanding answers from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding Lilian Calderon and individuals like her who have been detained by ICE while seeking to validate their marriages to United States citizens and become lawful permanent residents.
Mark Wolf, from his Twitter account

Lilian Calderon was detained by ICE during a routine visit immigration visit to establish the legitimacy of her marriage to her husband, a United States citizen. She is the mother of two children, both United States citizens. After a month in prison, during which the ACLU filed a lawsuit on her behalf, Calderon was released by ICE on February 13th without explanation.

Having released Calderon, ICE sought to have the suit brought by the ACLU of Rhode Island and the ACLU of Massachusetts dismissed as moot. Judge Wolf demurred, noting that, “Calderon’s release before a hearing previously scheduled for February 21, 2018 is part of a pattern that has emerged in related cases assigned to the court.”

Wolf then went on to describe the cases of other persons detained by ICE in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, remarking on their similarity to the case of Lilian Calderon. In his court order, Judge Wolf writes that Calderon “alleges that at least three other aliens similarly seeking permanent resident status as spouses of United States citizens were also arrested by ICE at a [United Sates Citizenship and Immigration Services] office in January 2018.”

“The court has not been informed of the procedures that led to Calderon’s release, the reasons for it, or whether ICE asserts that it had lawfully detained Calderon and has the authority to do so again in the same manner,” wrote Judge Wolf. “Nor has the court been advised of the status of the aliens alleged to be similarly situated to Calderon,” except for one.

Seeking answers from ICE, Judge Wolf ordered that respondents shall, by noon on February 21, 2018, file an affidavit from an ICE representative describing:

the official who made the original decision that Calderon should be detained;

the legal basis for the decision, including whether ICE considered her detention mandatory or discretionary;

the procedures followed in reaching the decision and, if any, the individualized reasons for it;

the official who decided that Calderon should be released;

the reason(s) for her release;

the reason(s) why she was released on February 13, 2018, rather than sooner or later;

whether respondents assert that they had, and still have, the authority to detain Calderon without an individualized determination of dangerousness and risk of flight;

whether Calderon has been released for a defined period of time and, therefore, may be detained again;

whether any individuals other than Calderon and de Oliveira were arrested while taking steps to seek permanent residency at a Massachusetts or Rhode Island CIS office in January 2018;

if so, whether any of those individuals have received individualized determinations of dangerousness and risk of flight; and

whether any of them have also been released.

“We are pleased that Judge Wolf appears to recognize the games that ICE is playing with people’s lives. We are hopeful that the response that ICE must give will shed light on their disturbing practices,” wroteSteven Brown, ACLU of Rhode Island executive director.

]]>https://upriseri.com/news/immigration/2018-02-17-judge-wolf-ice-lilian-calderon/feed/05252Providence City Council considering plastic bag banhttps://upriseri.com/news/environment/2018-02-16-plastic-bag-ban/
https://upriseri.com/news/environment/2018-02-16-plastic-bag-ban/#commentsFri, 16 Feb 2018 21:05:03 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5248...]]>“The production, use, and disposal of single-use plasticbags have significant adverse impacts on the environment and are a serious economic burden to the City’s solid waste disposal and single-stream recycling systems,” Providence City Council Majority Whip Jo-Ann Ryan (Ward 5). “Reducing single-use plasticbags will help to curb litter on our streets and waterways, protect the marine environment, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions… The economic reasons are also significant as the City will save at least $1 Million each year by removing this common contaminant to our recycling system. This initiative will also help to remove 95 million single-use bags annually from our landfill.”

Ryan introduced introduced an ordinance on Thursday “that calls for a reduction of single-use plasticbags and encourages the use of reusable checkout bags at retail establishments throughout the City. This ordinance addresses significant environmental and economic concerns facing the City and is modeled after those successfully passed in other municipalities and is most similar to the one recently passed in Boston.”

Highlights of the Ordinance Include:

It exempts certain types of plasticbags such as dry cleaning or laundry bags, bags used to wrap or contain frozen foods or prevent or contain moisture, etc.

It allows retailers to retain the cost of reusable bags sold to customers(Note: large chain retailers are currently selling reusable bags for as little as .25 cents). Retailers spend over $3.9M on bags annually.)Countless studies, beginning with Ireland in 2002, have shown that adding a modest fee for bags reduces the use of single-use bags by more than 90%.

It gives 12 months from passage to become compliant allowing time for education/outreach and for retailers to use existing stock.

It provides an exemption for retailers who may have a hardship determined by the Director of the Office of Sustainability.

The Ordinance is the product of numerous meetings with the City’s Zero Waste Group and the City’s Office of Sustainability.

Single-use plasticbags are used on average for 12 minutes and live for about 1K years.

Single-use plasticbag production produces over 2.5K metric tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) annually and contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Single-use plasticbags end up in the ocean, breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics, Clean Water Action found that the Providence River had the highest concentration of these microplastics in the Bay.

It’s estimated that over 95M plasticbags are used annually in Providence.

Single-use plasticbags account for roughly 60 tons of garbage.

Single-use plasticbags are NOT recyclable in our single stream RIRRC’s recycling facility.

Single-use plasticbags are the cause of contamination of our recycling bins and compromise our recycling program.

“While eight of my Republican colleagues did the right thing and voted in favor of a bipartisan compromise which was in the best interest of our nation’s businesses and our economy, a majority of Republican Senators set in motion the possibility of deportation for hard-working, driven young people who play by the rules and contribute to our nation,” said United States Senator Jack Reed (Democrat, Rhode Island) in a statement. “They chose to reject tough but fair proposals that provided President Trump with his border wall, among many other very conservative concessions.”

DREAMer Rodrigo Pimentel put it more simply, writing on Facebook, “The Senate voted for the deportation of DREAMers.”

I wrote here about Rodrigo renewing his DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals) ahead of a vote that should have secured his safety, but instead throws his future to the winds.

2. More immigration:

Lilian Calderon was taken into detention by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a routine visit to an immigration office despite being on a proper, legal path towards becoming a lawful permanent resident. She spent nearly a month in detention before being granted a 90-day stay on her deportation back to Guatamala, a country she left at the age of three. (Detention is one of those words journalists shouldn’t be using because it’s just a nice word for prison, and it disguises what is really happening… but I digress.)

Calderon’s experience was punctuated with frequent threats of solitary confinement. She was treated not as a detainee, whatever that might mean, but as a criminal, a prisoner.

Calderon is a mother of two children who are United States citizens and married to Luis Gordillo, also a citizen.

If you know someone who is dealing with an immigration issue or police violence, tell them to call the AMOR Support Line at 401-675-1414. The Support Line will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will initially have English and Spanish language capacity. By calling this line, community members and bystanders experiencing or witnessing acts of state-sponsored and individual violence will be able to access support.

The AMOR Supprot Line is continuing to fund raise to cover emergency legal costs for the communities they serve as a part of the Support Line. Contributions are sorely needed.

Unfortunately, the AMOR Support Line opened a month too late to help Lilian Calderon, but even more unfortunately, I fear the line will very much come in handy in the months ahead.

4. Guns:

The Stoneman Douglas High Schoolshooting in Florida is the 18th school shooting in the United States this year. Sacrificing our children to gun toting domestic terrorists is the price we pay for the freedom to bear arms say some, while decent human beings are not convinced this evil is necessary.

“There will never be a legislative solution to cure the malice that resides in the heart of evil doers. But we can and must ban highly lethal weapons of war in the hands of civilians. The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence again implores our state legislators to join our neighboring New England states and ban Assault Weapons and guns in schools.”

State Republican Chairman Mark Smiley said the winners of the party’s gun raffle this Sunday [which includes Smith & Wesson’s version of the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle] at the South County Rod & Gun Club will have to pass background checks.

“The weapon will be held, and the winner given a certificate,” Smiley said. “That certificate will be redeemable at the gun shop that donated the weapon. After the winner passes both state and federal background checks and has waited the required week, they will take possession of the weapon.”

4. More guns:

The response from some members of the Rhode Island General Assembly was to eschew “thoughts and prayers” and engage with smart policy and legislation.

“Tomorrow, I will introduce a bill to ban assault weapons in Rhode Island,” said Rhode Island State Senator Joshua Miller (Democrat, District 28, Cranston). “I understand the urgent need to end gun violence in Rhode Island, and believe that by banning military style weapons we are moving in the right direction.”

“Gun violence is a full blown public health crisis. We need to take quick and decisive action to protect our people,” said Rhode Island State Representative Jason Knight (Democrat, District 67, Warren). “It will take a multi-pronged strategy that includes banning the sale and ownership of assault weapons. There purpose goes far beyond defense of self and home. There is no place for them in civil society.”

“It’s beyond time Rhode Island takes action. High-capacity magazines turn already powerful guns into weapons whose sole purpose is to incur multiple deaths and injuries as quickly as possible,” said Rhode Island State Senator Gayle Goldin (Democrat, District 3, Providence). “They are illegal for hunting, and they are unnecessary for protection. They are a tool that enables mass shooters to carry out their heinous acts, leaving countless victims dead every year, and there’s no valid reason to allow their use and sale here in Rhode Island.”

“This is a common-sense limit that is meant to prevent mass shootings,” said Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (Democrat, District 1, Providence), a cosponsor on the bill. “The ability to fire many bullets without reloading is one element that enables shooters to keep going. High-capacity magazines are a tool that is creating scores of innocent victims, particularly children in school shootings, and they should not be legal.”

“High-capacity magazines enable mass murderers, said Senator Joshua Miller (Democrat, District 28, Cranston). “Of all the gun reforms we should make, this one shouldn’t be that hard. You can’t go duck hunting with more than three bullets in your gun in Rhode Island. Are human lives not worth at least as much?”

“No law-abiding person has a need to rapidly fire off more than 10 rounds without reloading,” said cosponsor Senator Cynthia ArmourCoyne (Democrat, District 32, Barrington). “High-capacity magazines are an open invitation for tragedy, and we shouldn’t wait for one of those tragedies to happen here in Rhode Island before we act.” Coyne is a former Rhode Island State Trooper.

“I understand the need to change hearts and minds on important issues, but how many hearts are going to stop beating before we take meaningful action?” asked Senator Dawn Euer (Democrat, District 13, Newport, Jamestown). “Common-sense gun safety measures are supported by the majority of people in our state.”

The response from General Assembly leadership was to stay silent as they counted blood-soaked NRA campaign contributions behind closed doors.

5. Reproductive rights:

Planned Parenthoodannounced a “sweeping plan” to “push initiatives that expand access to reproductive health care in all 50 states.”

In Rhode Island, that effort takes the form of the 2018 Reproductive Health Care Act (RHCA), introduced by Representative Edith Ajello (Democrat, District 1, Providence) and State Senator Gayle Goldin (Democrat, District 3, Providence). The RHCA, said Ajello, would “protect a woman’s right to a safe, legal abortion in our state — and safeguard it against threats from the Trump-Pence administration. It would also repeal a number of restrictions passed in recent years since Roe v Wade, most of them enjoined by the courts but nevertheless still on the books.”

Ajello was speaking on a press call to announce the new Planned Parenthood initiative. She was the only elected official in the country speaking on the call.

6. More reproductive rights:

At the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday, reproductive rights activists and volunteers offered legislators Mardi Gras beads in three colors; the color to be determined by where they stand on “Reproductive Freedom” and the 2018 Reproductive Health Care Act. Blue beads were for Justice. Green beads for Faith. Gold beads were for Power.

The outreach went well, mostly. Good conversations were had with Senate President Dominick Ruggerio and House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi. Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello brushed off attempts to talk to him about the bill.

Anti-choice lobbyists Barth Bracy from Rhode Island Right to Life and a lobbyist priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence hovered nearby, shoring up anti-choice support with legislators approached by pro-choice advocates.

7. Even more reproductive rights:

On Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence led an anti-choice rally outside of Planned Parenthood in Providence. The Bishop seems really down on Valentine’s Day, writing that, “the church is not inclined to grant a dispensation from the obligations of Ash Wednesday, the obligation to fast and abstain from meat. You want to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Go for dinner the night before, Mardi Gras, or on some other enchanted evening. But Ash Wednesday belongs to God, and it shouldn’t be taken away from him.”

Here’s a thought: maybe God would be cool with you spending quality time with a loved one…

Also, had Tobin’s anti-choice rally been properly announced I could have easily planned a counter-protest.

8. Something I wrote on Facebook people seemed to like:

I often enter spaces where I am one of the few or even the only white, cisgendered male in the room. In doing so I have to understand a fundamental truth: I should not be trusted by the people there.

This is hard for people like me to understand. I’m a good person, I have the best intentions, I want to help, I’ve never harmed these people.

I, I, I, I…

See what happened there? I made it all about me, my feelings, my expectations, my needs. In the grand scheme of doing what is right and trying to be a good ally, my feelings, expectations and needs do not matter. If they did, my presence would not be serving anyone but me.

So I enter the room with as few expectations as I can. I am there to listen, learn. These spaces are not times for me to ask questions, or educate myself. I can do that later, with people who I trust and who trust me. I can, for instance, look up “cisgender” on Google. I can understand that the word “undocumented” is preferred to “illegal.” The word resident is always better than the word citizen. I can learn new pronouns and new words and in the process maybe even learn new ways to think and be.

The experience is intoxicating and beautiful.

And as for help, as a reporter I can quote, accurately and without editorializing, the actual words people use when talking about their issues. I can let people who have difficulty in accessing the media speak through my work. I can offer people space on my site to reach an audience if they want.

But I don’t insist that they do. I don’t give advice on how to do activism. I don’t tell people how to conduct their business, what words to use, or how to tailor their message to make people like me comfortable because there is no “right way” to overthrow oppression.

For instance, my privileges and prejudices tell me to eschew violence, which is easy to say when the baton isn’t crashing on my head and the bullets aren’t savaging the organs of my children. I’m not a better person for my pacifism because many communities are fighting for their very lives against systems of oppression that are literally invisible to people like me, and my espoused pacifism makes me a poor ally if things go bad…

So I approach all this with openness. I want to learn. And I want to help.

I. I. I…

…need to get out of my own way first.

9. Rent Control:

On Valentine’s Day, Madonna Trottier showed me around the house she and her husband Butch are being evicted from.

Thin, gauzy tape covers the seams that separate window from wall in some rooms. You can look outside the apartment through the space between the ill fitting front door and door frame. The ceilings leak and mice sometimes come up through holes in the baseboard of the closet.

The Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA), formed out of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), has a solution for situations like the Trottier’s: Rent Control. The group has crafted a ordinance, which, among other things, would regulate annual rent increases on private market apartments in Providence, entitle tenant’s to renewable, year-to-year leases, and establish a 9-member rent board to oversee the administration of the policy.

The THA is currently gathering signatures, as per the Providence City Charter, to introduce the ordinance to the Providence City Council to be passed without amendment. If the council declines passage, the THA will collect the subsequent required signatures to make rent control a ballot question in Providence in the November elections.

“The concept of reproductive freedom for me is larger than the issue of abortion. Growing up in a world with gender inequality, I have come to the determination that this issue is the last great battle to deny women what men have. Men have reproductive freedom in a way that women cannot have. Lately, when I discuss the state legislation with someone, my position is that reproductive freedom is about believing that women are smart enough, emotionally stable enough and compassionate enough to be left alone to make their own decisions. If people don’t believe that, then they don’t believe in gender equality and I find that more dispiriting than anything else.”

“For years, Justin Boyan worried about the effects of climate change but focused on his wife, his two daughters and his work as a computer scientist in Rhode Island. Then Donald J Trump became president, and Mr. Boyan was jolted into political activism.

“Within days of the election, Mr Boyan began volunteering for the Working Families Party, a liberal political organization focused on income inequality, and attended almost weekly protests to voice his dismay. He traveled to the Women’s March on Washington with his family the day after inauguration, protested Mr. Trump’s travel ban at the Rhode Island state capital, and began studying criminal justice issues, which he connects to climate change as two issues where policy makers, he believes, have put the demands of big-money contributors over the needs of ordinary people.

“The same energy motivating Mr Boyan is bursting out at demonstrations and town hall meetings across the country. Protesters who had focused on issues like police shootings of black people, a $15 minimum wage and climate change are collaborating against a common foe, President Trump. In cities and states, activists are exchanging civil disobedience tactics, pooling financial resources and showing up to demonstrations about issues that they may not have previously focused on.”

13. Invenergy!

“In other words, while it is true that Invenergy could file a similar complaint in the future, Invenergy will not be doing so,” asserted Invenergy Attorney Mark Russo, promising that the company would not seek to save millions of dollars through a court action it already attempted once. Invenergy seeks to build a $1 billion dollar fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant in the heart of the pristine forests of north west Rhode island.

“Invenergy is asking the Town (and the Energy Facilities Siting Board) to trust that they will not to refile their cost-shifting suit,” wrote Burrillville Attorney Michael McElroy responding to a question from the Public Utilities Commission‘s Patti Lucarelli. “However, it is difficult for the Town to put trust into Invenergy’s promises, especially because Invenergy has recently defaulted on its obligation to make a $500,000 payment to the Town that was due under the Tax Agreement on January 15, 2018, and was not paid as required.

Invenergy Attorney Michael Blazer responded that most of what McElroy wrote “is not responsive to [the] question, is irrelevant surplusage and, to a large extent, is inaccurate. We request that all of that be stricken from the record of this proceeding.”

Needless to say, the term “irrelevant surplusage” is redundant.

14. More Invenergy, kind of:

When it comes to Invenergy’s proposed power plant in Burrillville or National Grid‘s proposed LNG liquefaction facility in the Port of Providence, self-professed environmentalists Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo and United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, Rhode Island) are steadfastly clinging to a neutral position, telling activists and affected residents to “trust the process.”

When it comes to President Donald Trump and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke‘s offshore drilling plan, Raimondo and Whitehouse say they are opposed.

Here’s the thing, though: Zinke is also engaged in a “process.” Everything Governor Raimondo and Senator Whitehouse have been saying to the public about their neutrality regarding Invenergy’s power plant could conceivably be said by Secretary Zinke about offshore drilling.

Both Raimondo and Whitehouse tell us to trust the process. Zinke has a process too Complete with public meetings, environmental impact statements and a decision making body.

-Just in case you don’t trust the process, you might want to be at this event on February 28:

“Whitehouse and [Senator Jack] Reed did not support Rand Paul‘s motion to have a vote on whether our wars in multiple countries there are properly authorized,” wroteJonathan Daly-LaBelle and David Oppenheimer, who organized an action outside Whitehouse’s downtown Providence offices. “What are their views, what limitations will they seek, as Congress considers action on the stretched beyond credibility 2001 and 2002 Authorized Use of Military Force Resoluton? How about [Representatives James] Langevin and [David] Cicilline – are they for unchecked war across the globe?”

16. 100 percent renewable energy:

Last August, Mark Jacobson, a renewable energy expert and senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, was the leader of a study that identified how 139 countries around the world could obtain 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2050.

Black Panther “is steeped very specifically and purposefully in its blackness. ‘It’s the first time in a very long time that we’re seeing a film with centered black people, where we have a lot of agency,’ says Jamie Broadnax, the founder of Black Girl Nerds, a pop-culture site focused on sci-fi and comic-book fandoms. These characters, she notes, ‘are rulers of a kingdom, inventors and creators of advanced technology. We’re not dealing with black pain, and black suffering, and black poverty’ — the usual topics of acclaimed movies about the black experience.

I will be taking time off to see this movie. Please don’t do anything too interesting this weekend, Rhode Island, but I’ll try to be there if you do.

18. Picture of the week:

Lilian Calderon

That’s it for this week, see you soon, I’m sure.

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]]>https://upriseri.com/uprising/2018-02-16-uprising/feed/15242Senator Goldin introduces bill to ban high-capacity gun magazineshttps://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-goldin-high-capacity/
https://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-goldin-high-capacity/#respondFri, 16 Feb 2018 03:25:35 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5239...]]>“It’s only seven weeks into the year and we’ve already had multiple mass shootings,” said Rhode Island State Senator Gayle Goldin (Democrat, District 3, Providence). “It’s beyond time Rhode Island takes action. High-capacity magazines turn already powerful guns into weapons whose sole purpose is to incur multiple deaths and injuries as quickly as possible. They are illegal for hunting, and they are unnecessary for protection. They are a tool that enables mass shooters to carry out their heinous acts, leaving countless victims dead every year, and there’s no valid reason to allow their use and sale here in Rhode Island.”

The legislation,2018-S 2319, would criminalize the manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale or transfer of any ammunition feeding device capable of accepting more than ten rounds, known as high capacity magazines. Goldin had several cosponsors for her bill.

“This is a common-sense limit that is meant to prevent mass shootings,” said Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (Democrat, District 1, Providence), a cosponsor on the bill. “The ability to fire many bullets without reloading is one element that enables shooters to keep going. High-capacity magazines are a tool that is creating scores of innocent victims, particularly children in school shootings, and they should not be legal.”

“High-capacity magazines enable mass murderers, said Senator Joshua Miller (Democrat, District 28, Cranston). “Of all the gun reforms we should make, this one shouldn’t be that hard. You can’t go duck hunting with more than three bullets in your gun in Rhode Island. Are human lives not worth at least as much?”

“No law-abiding person has a need to rapidly fire off more than 10 rounds without reloading,” said cosponsor Senator Cynthia ArmourCoyne (Democrat, District 32, Barrington). “High-capacity magazines are an open invitation for tragedy, and we shouldn’t wait for one of those tragedies to happen here in Rhode Island before we act.” Coyne is a former Rhode island State Trooper.

“I understand the need to change hearts and minds on important issues, but how many hearts are going to stop beating before we take meaningful action?” asked Senator Dawn Euer (Democrat, District 13, Newport, Jamestown). “Common-sense gun safety measures are supported by the majority of people in our state.”

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]]>https://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-goldin-high-capacity/feed/05239Democracy betrayed again in Honduras – Urge Langevin to sign on to HR 1299: The Berta Cáceres Acthttps://upriseri.com/oped/2018-02-15-hr-1299-berta-caceres-act/
https://upriseri.com/oped/2018-02-15-hr-1299-berta-caceres-act/#commentsThu, 15 Feb 2018 22:00:08 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5232...]]>On November 26th the Honduran people seemingly had elected an opposition candidate as President, replacing the president whose party had been brought to power by military coup in 2009. The opposition candidate had a five percent lead with the vast majority of votes counted. But the corrupt government that received firm support from both the Obama administration and now Trump, temporarily closed the election board, manipulated results and is now indicating the current President has won.

As Americans we treasure electoral freedoms and were outraged when our own presidential election was tarnished by foul-play and outside interference. United States interference and control of Honduras goes back to the 19th century and continues today. We funnel millions of dollars of military and security aid to a government that is clearly involved in massive corruption, the drug trade, stealing of lands from indigenous peoples, and assassinations of human rights activists including Berta Cáceres. Our State Department certifies that the country is OK on human rights when the record is clear: a state of impunity exists in the country where 95 percent of violent crimes go unsolved, un-prosecuted, un-investigated or covered up.

We urge our congressional delegation to speak out for the democratic process in Honduras and end the military funding to Honduras which costs American tax-payers millions of dollars and costs Hondurans the opportunity to shape their future without outside interference. Please help us in urging Representative James Langevin to join the sixty-nine other Representatives, including Representative David Cicilline, in co-sponsoring H.R. 1299, The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, by signing on to this petition.

]]>https://upriseri.com/oped/2018-02-15-hr-1299-berta-caceres-act/feed/15232RI Coalition Against Gun Violence statement on the Parkland, Florida school shootinghttps://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-stoneman-douglas-high-school/
https://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-stoneman-douglas-high-school/#respondThu, 15 Feb 2018 21:40:07 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5228...]]>Columbine, Sandy Hook, Pulse Night Club, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs Church, and, now, Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. 17 young, beautiful lives eviscerated by a man with a weapon intended solely for battlefields. All the drills and even campus police weren’t able to withstand the firepower of the shooter’s AR-15 at Stoneman High School.

This shooting marks the 18th school shooting in the United States this year. The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) recognizes that here in Rhode Island we are particularly vulnerable, unlike our neighboring states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Rhode Island has not yet banned military assault weapons, and places no limit on magazine capacities. We are also one of only four states that generally allow the concealed carry of firearms in K-12 schools. We are outliers both regionally and nationally when it comes to the concealed carry of firearms in K-12 schools.

Guns have no places in our nation’s schools. It is time to work together as citizens, as legislators, and as organizations to stop the threat that militarized weapons pose to our communities.

“Tomorrow, I will introduce a bill to ban assault weapons in Rhode Island,” said Rhode Island State Senator Joshua Miller (Democrat, District 28, Cranston). “I understand the urgent need to end gun violence in Rhode Island, and believe that by banning military style weapons we are moving in the right direction.”

“Gun violence is a full blown public health crisis. We need to take quick and decisive action to protect our people,” said Rhode Island State Representative Jason Knight (Democrat, District 67, Warren). “It will take a multi-pronged strategy that includes banning the sale and ownership of assault weapons. There purpose goes far beyond defense of self and home. There is no place for them in civil society.”

There will never be a legislative solution to cure the malice that resides in the heart of evil doers. But we can and must ban highly lethal weapons of war in the hands of civilians. The RICAGV again implores our state legislators to join our neighboring New England states and ban Assault Weapons and guns in schools.

]]>https://upriseri.com/news/guns/2018-02-15-stoneman-douglas-high-school/feed/05228CLF’s Jerry Elmer asks, “How stupid does Invenergy think the people of Rhode Island are?”https://upriseri.com/news/energy/efsb/invenergy/2018-02-15-invenergy-ferc-clf/
https://upriseri.com/news/energy/efsb/invenergy/2018-02-15-invenergy-ferc-clf/#respondThu, 15 Feb 2018 21:07:28 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5220...]]>“In other words, while it is true that Invenergy could file a similar complaint in the future, Invenergy will not be doing so,” asserted Invenergy Attorney Mark Russo.

Invenergy has proposed a $1 billion fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant to be built in the middle of the pristine forests of north west Rhode Island.

In December, Invenergy filed a lawsuit at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which if successful, would have transferred $168 million in interconnection expenses onto Rhode Island and New England electricity ratepayers. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) Senior Attorney Jerry Elmerwrote an oped about the lawsuit in the Providence Journal about this.

Invenergy’s lawsuit was one of the reasons that Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin listed when he announced his opposition to Invenergy’s proposal.

“When CLF exposed Invenergy’s secret effort to transfer $168 million in interconnection expenses to ratepayers, the outcry was huge; as a result, Invenergy was forced to voluntarily withdraw its lawsuit at FERC,” said Elmer. “But on February 13th Invenergy filed a document with the Rhode Island Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) in which Invenergy admits publicly that there is nothing to stop Invenergy from re-filing the same, identical request with FERC, even after Invenergy gets a permit from the EFSB.

“How stupid does Invenergy think the people of Rhode Island are?”

According to Elmer, “Invenergy is saying to the EFSB and to the whole world: ‘Trust us. We can re-file our request to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to ratepayers any time we want, even after we get an EFSB permit. We ask the public to trust us when we say we won’t do that, even though we can.’

“Invenergy is telling us – as directly as it possibly can – that it is not a company that can be trusted,” said Elmer.

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]]>https://upriseri.com/news/energy/efsb/invenergy/2018-02-15-invenergy-ferc-clf/feed/05220Call the AMOR Support Line at 401-675-1414 if you are dealing with an immigration issue or police violencehttps://upriseri.com/news/2018-02-15-amor-support-line/
https://upriseri.com/news/2018-02-15-amor-support-line/#respondThu, 15 Feb 2018 20:31:05 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5216...]]>Arely Díaz and Catarina Lorenzo

If you know someone who is dealing with an immigration issue or police violence, tell them to call the AMOR Support Line at 401-675-1414. The Support Line will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will initially have English and Spanish language capacity. By calling this line, community members and bystanders experiencing or witnessing acts of state-sponsored and individual violence will be able to access support.

The AMOR Supprot Line is continuing to fund raise to cover emergency legal costs for our community as a part of the Support Line. Contributions are sorely needed.

At the launch party for the AMOR Support Line, the new phone number was announced with dramatic fanfare.

Sofia Wright explained the history of AMOR and the Support Line, ending with an appeal for financial support. “For me, bringing together the connection between immigration and detention and incarceration and the ACI and the prison system was the biggest thing we could do to unify our fight against one system that breaks down communities of color…

“One of the things we thought after Trump got elected was that we couldn’t hope or assume that other people were going to have the infrastructure we needed to take care of our communities and keep each other safe,” continued Wright. “And we also couldn’t rely on other folks to know how to do that, or know that we could do it well, or give us the dignity we deserve…

“Think about it like this: The police have a full budget. The army, the military, the prison systems have complete budgets. What we’re doing right now is that we’re paying for the healing process. We’re paying for the preventative work that is trying to get ourselves out of that trauma.”

“If folks are in danger or have been detained, please call the support,” said Catarina Lorenzo and Arely Díaz, “And we can find a way to provide support to your family and to provide legal support, we can provide legal funds for cases… We can also provide ‘Know Your Rights’ trainings, we can provide ‘Family Preparedness’ trainings… There’s also court support and transportation support… There are a wide range of things that we can provide.”

Steven Dy is with PrYSM and leads the Community Defense Project (CDP). CDP “is basically the police violence branch of AMOR,” said Dy. CDP focuses on three areas:

Legal Support – “Everyone needs legal support when they’ve been criminalized and demonized by racist policies that keep us marginalized,” said Dy.

Community Organizing – “We try to rally around cases, we do Cop Watch, we do rights trainings, because it’s one thing to know your rights, but its another thing to get your rights.”

Mental Health – “It’s been something that’s been really hard to do, especially with communities of color, because the way the mental health system has been designed it hasn’t been welcoming towards my grandma or my uncle, or people who have English as a second language.”

]]>https://upriseri.com/news/2018-02-15-amor-support-line/feed/05216DARE fighting Providence gentrification with rent control proposalhttps://upriseri.com/housing/rent-control/2018-02-15-dare-rent-control/
https://upriseri.com/housing/rent-control/2018-02-15-dare-rent-control/#respondThu, 15 Feb 2018 05:59:39 +0000http://upriseri.com/?p=5166...]]>A window in the empty third floor apartment at 40 Grove Street in Providence had blown open in the night, letting out heat and letting in an early morning, below freezing draft. Other windows in the first, second and third floor apartments are nailed in place or tied shut with bits of string or stuffed with garbage bags and newspaper. Thin, gauzy tape covers the seams that separate window from wall in some rooms. You can look outside the apartment through the space between the ill fitting front door and door frame. The ceilings leak and mice sometimes come up through holes in the baseboard of the closet.

Madonna Trottier, who lives in the first floor apartment with her husband Butch, tells me that she once had to throw away all her groceries because mice chewed through the boxes.

Despite these problems the apartment itself is kept neat and clean. It is a home. But the Trottiers face eviction because Providence Student Living, a business owned by Dez Properties, a Boston-based investment company, bought the house and wants them out. The company plans to fix up the apartment after the Trottiers are evicted so they can double or triple the rent for college students, says DARE.

Steven Hogan lives on the second floor.

Malchus Mills

The Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA), formed out of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), has a solution for situations like the Trottier’s: Rent Control. The group has crafted a ordinance, which, among other things, would regulate annual rent increases on private market apartments in Providence, entitle tenant’s to renewable, year-to-year leases, and establish a 9-member rent board to oversee the administration of the policy.

The THA is currently gathering signatures, as per the Providence City Charter, to introduce the ordinance to the Providence City Council to be passed without amendment. If the council declines passage, the THA will collect the subsequent required signatures to make rent control a ballot question in Providence in the November elections

“This campaign is designed to counter the negative impacts of gentrification, rising rents, and housing speculation,” writes the THA. “Especially like that practiced by Providence Student Living, the LLC that purchased 40 Grove Street in November and has acknowledged plans to fully rehabilitate the building in order to rent it to college students for much higher rents than the Trottier family, elderly tenants on a fixed income, could afford.”

Anusha Alles and Alexis Trujillo, both THA members, went with the Trottiers when they were taken to court to be evicted by the new owners of the building.

Alexis Trujillo, Madonna Trottier, Anusha Alles, Terri Hodge

“When we were there, we saw that a lot of these people, most of these people, were young families: a lot of children there, a lot of women, a lot of people of color, a lot of people speaking Spanish,” said Alles.

“The majority of tenants are under represented [legally] and are pressured into ‘move out’ deals by landlords and their attorneys,” said Trujillo. “We witnessed this. A lot of people Anusha mentioned were pushed into corners of the public space of the lobby of the courtroom, and were sort of like forced into these deals because they didn’t have any other options.”

In court, the Trottiers and Hogan were forced to take a deal that would force them out of their home in a few weeks.

“Providence Student Living is an example of how gentrification is working in our city right now,” said Trujillo. The houses listed on the Dez Properties website are all located in low-income communities of color, “where students and other transplants are actively pushing people out by the force of these companies, companies like Providence Student Living.”

The business model of Providence Student living, said Alles, “The put people out of their neighborhoods, where they have lived for years and invested time and money. They furnish the place, and then they rent it to students from out of town for exorbitant rents. This is not economic development for the majority of people in this city, and we need policies like rent control to discourage speculation and stop skyrocketing rents.”

Representative John Lombardi (Democrat, District 8, Providence) spoke about the need to protect his neighbors in the community.

“Today we are announcing our rent control campaign,” said Malchus Mills, DARE board member. “Rent control makes sure that landlords can only raise rent once per year, and by a small percentage.”

The 9-member rent board that the rent control ordinance would establish would settle disputes between tenants and landlords, leveling the playing field when tenants are unable to afford a lawyer.

Gauzy tape for window seamsRain water leaking into ceiling tilesBaseboards open to verminnewspapers crammed into ill-fitting windowsThis window fell open in the middle of the night. Heating bills are extremely high as a result.Garbage bags as insulation, I think.

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“It was just a routine interview,” said Lilian Calderon. “We didn’t think anything of it.”

On January 17th Lilian and her husband Luis Gordillo brought their four-year-old daughter, Natalie, to the doctor’s office for a quick check up. Then the couple went to their immigration appointment. Lilian was in the process of becoming a lawful permanent resident, as the wife of a United States citizen and the mother of two children, also United States citizens. Brought to this country at the age of three, Lilian was working to change her status from undocumented to documented, following the legal process laid out for her by immigration officials and lawyers.

Lilian and Luis brought a photo album and other papers with them, documenting their life together: their relationship which began in high school, the birth of their two children, holidays, birthdays, marriage photos.

“We arrived at our appointment and Luis and I were in the waiting room just hanging out talking about what we were going to do when we left there,” said Lilian. “It was definitely not how planned the day as going.”

The immigration officials wanted to interview thee couple separately. Luis went in first and it was probably a ten minute interview. He came out of the interview saying, “It’s fine. It went fine.”

And then they called Lilian in.

“I think it was maybe a five minute interview,” said Lilian. The immigration officer asked her basic questions.

“Everything is in order,” said the immigration officer. “It’s a legitimate marriage. I don’t have any more questions for you. We’re going to go ahead and approve your petition.”

The two then discussed football. “I didn’t think anything of it,” said Lilian, “I was thinking that this was going great because he said everything was fine…

“Then, at the end of the interview, the immigration officer said that before I left I had to speak to other immigration officials that were there.”

The two immigration officials Lilian was speaking to stepped out of the room when the new immigration officials entered. “They came in and told me they had to detain me because I had a prior order of deportation.”

“That’s when I was like, ‘Well, you just approved my marriage, what do you mean I have to go with you?’ I asked them if I could speak to Luis and they said ‘No.’ I said ‘Why not? I have to tell him what’s happening,’ and they said, ‘No. We’re going to inform him of what’s happening.'”

Lilian was told she could call her lawyer when she reached the immigration office in Warwick.

“Is there anything you want to give him?” asked the immigration officers.

“Of course,” said Lilian. “I want to give him the pictures and the album…

“They didn’t even give me a chance to say bye to him.”

Lilian Calderon “is back with her family after almost a month’s detention,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU. “A detention that was the result of a cruel bait and switch. A detention that occurred solely because she did what the government had asked her to do to address her citizenship status.”

After being processed in Warwick, which included photos and fingerprinting, Lilian was finally granted a phone call. She called Luis.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Lilian. “They’re telling me to sign these documents and I don’t know what anything is.”

“Don’t sign anything if you don’t understand what it is,” said Luis.

Lilian’s attorney went to the immigration office to try to get her released. Lilian was not allowed to see her lawyer.

She was shackled for a second time that day and sent to Suffolk County House of Correction at South Bay where she was processed again. Then she was transferred to the ICE Unit in the prison. None of the officers have any answers to any questions the inmates might have, says Lilian.

Attorney Martin Harris

She used the pay phones in the prison to call her husband and let him know where she was. Luis called Attorney Martin Harris, who contacted Lilian “and made things easier because he made me feel calm.”

“The ladies in the ICE Unit kept asking me, ‘Why are you here?'” said Lilian. “Even the [correctional] officers were asking, ‘Why are you ICE? Why are you here?’ No one understood.

“Every time I got moved they would say to me, how are you ICE? Is it drugs? And I was like, no, it’s not. And that’s a problem because everyone thinks that when you’re detained you’re detained because of drugs.

“They don’t tell you that the women detained in that unit are moms and grandmothers and they’re daughters,” continued Lilian. “And while I was there there were a few other women who were also there because they went to their immigration interviews with their husbands who are citizens and they have citizen children and they were detained as well. With no reason, no explanation…

“Some of them have been there a month, two months. I met a lady that was there for three years. She was shuffled from one place to another place and finally to where we were. She didn’t know what her situation was she was just waiting for her release.”

Lilian says that the prison has two caseworkers for the entire unit. One of the caseworkers told Lilian, “You know, I don’t know anything about immigration. I can’t help you. I don’t know what to tell you. We’re here because we work for the jail and we have to be here but I can’t help you.”

“That’s okay,” said Lilian. “You can help me just by listening and I told her my story and [the caseworker] asked, ‘Then why are you here? Why did they detain you? It doesn’t make sense.’

“I know,” said Lilian. “None of this makes sense. It’s not okay.”

The caseworker helped Lilian make a phone call.

Over the weeks Lilian spent in prison she was put through orientation. “They make you go through the steps that you would if you were detained under other reasons,” said Lilian. “So we did what they call orientation and what they call classes. We had to…” Lilian pauses, because this is difficult for her.

“We had to sit through videos that had to do with rape in prison,” says Lilian finally. “And all I could think of while I was there was I can’t believe I have to sit through a video of how to not get raped in prison, because just the other day I was picking up our daughter from school and I was thinking, okay, what are we going to do for winter so we can beat cabin fever, you know? And here I am a couple of days later watching these videos on rape and watching these videos on drugs and alcohol and domestic violence…

“I asked one of the officers, ‘Do I have to go to this? I don’t want to go, it doesn’t pertain to me – I mean, if I needed to be here for those reasons, this is great, you guys have help for people that need it – but I don’t need that kind of help. I need immigration help.'”

Lilian was told that she had to watch the videos, participate in classes, be part of the process, or be put in solitary confinement.

“I was like, what do you mean?” said Lilian. They said, “You’ll go into solitary confinement until you agree to do what you’re supposed to do here, because it’s not a choice.”

After her orientation, Lilian was visited by caseworkers who offer detainees and inmates the kind of help they might need to make their lives better once released. The caseworkers don’t offer immigration help. They offer help for addiction, domestic abuse etc.

“I don’t have those kind of problems,” said Lilian. “I have immigration problems. You can’t help me, but you’re forcing me to sit through these classes… At the end of orientation they make us pick these classes because they want us to be ‘productive.’ They want us to not sit in our units and they want us to get out.

“I said to one of the caseworkers, ‘Do I have to pick a class?’ I really don’t want to go outside of my unit because I feel safe where I am. The ladies that were there were all the same. We’re all moms, we all try to help each other. We care for each other. I didn’t meet anyone [in ICE detention] who wasn’t nice. And you’re telling me I have to pick a class, a class that doesn’t even pertain to me – it was anger management, it was narcotics anonymous, it was domestic violence, it was HIV and AIDS classes – and I was like, ‘I don’t want to leave my unit. I like my unit. The ladies are nice. We talk to each other. We’re kind of each other’s support and stuff –

“And [the caseworker] said to me, ‘You need to pick something, because if you don’t pick something, you’re going to solitary.'”

“Every time I would say something or disagree with something, it was automatic – You need to do what we say or we’re going to put you in solitary,” said Lilian.

“I didn’t do anything wrong that would put me in this position.”

Attorney Adriana Lafaille

To speak to her lawyers, Lilian had to use a payphone and call Luis. “When you try to call your lawyers, there’s another number that you dial. It wouldn’t let us make any outside phone calls to our lawyers. It would say, ‘All our lines are blocked.’

“The other ladies that were there, [some] didn’t speak English and they would ask me to help them and I would help them and say, ‘It’s not going through. You can’t call your lawyer.’ And they would ask me why and I would say, ‘You know what, I don’t know, but we can ask the officer that’s in charge of our unit. And when we would ask our officer she would say, ‘Oh, I don’t know why not. You just have to bring that up with your caseworker. Fill out a form and your caseworker will see you.

“But sometimes our caseworker wouldn’t come for two or three days,” continued Lilian. “So if you need to speak to your lawyer, you have to wait for a caseworker to come and let you use a private line to call your lawyer. But what if it’s an emergency? We’re supposed to be able to call our lawyers any time we need them. And we couldn’t.”

Lilian and Luis did what they could for the other detainees in the ICE Unit.

“I remember on occasion I would call Luis and say ‘Hey, so-and-so needs to call their family and she hasn’t been able to. Can you call them and tell them that she needs to talk to them?’ And he did that for a few of the ladies in there.

“Some of these ladies, when they couldn’t call anyone, it’s like, ‘You’re stranded. You’re stuck, you can’t – You’re like a sitting duck.’

“This is a month,” said Lilian, looking inward. “I can’t even imagine being in there two months, three months, four months… The people inside, they get nervous every time another day passes, another week, because they don’t hear anything. No one knows anything.”

“Everyone thinks that when you get detained by ICE its because it’s either drugs or violence or crime, like it has to be crime related,” said Lilian. “But it’s not true, because – I’ve never…” Lilian searches for the words. “Like I said: We would take our daughter to school. We would pick her up. We would take our children to the park. We would take them to the library. They had a schedule. They had some form of normalcy. There was never anything wrong – anything that would lead to a crime.

“So for you to think that I had to be picked up because it was either drug related or violence or some sort of crime, that’s a misconception. [People] don’t understand that we’re all moms. We’re all trying to figure things out. Or daughters. There were grandmothers there and you’re like ‘Why are you here?’ and it’s the same thing. They’re just going through the system and the system just picks them up and tells them ‘You have to wait here until we figure out what to do with you.'”

“[People] say to me, ‘You shouldn’t have gone through the system,’ but I say, ‘No, I’m trying to do the right thing.’

“But it’s a broken system.”

Lilian was release on February 13th. She had chocolate and strawberries for Valentine’s Day with her family. She has been granted a 90 day stay of deportation by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).